Martha's Vineyard — where DeSantis sent 50 migrants in political stunt — is more than just a posh liberal vacationland

• Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis flew 50 Venezuelan migrants to Martha's Vineyard.
• Locals told Insider the community is not just a posh vacation area, and year-rounders were eager to help.

In a political stunt to troll the libs, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis put 50 Venezuelan migrants on a plane to a New England community often thought of only as a summer haven to the rich and famous.

But Martha's Vineyard is more than just a posh vacationland for coastal elites; it's a year-round home for working class residents — many of them immigrants themselves. And it is in the midst of a housing crisis.

"It's amazing how the community came together, I almost had tears in my eyes," Barbara Ronchetti, the owner of Island Alpaca, an alpaca farm, told Insider about how people rallied around the migrants.

In the summer months, Martha's Vineyard is home to the wealthiest and politically connected Americans — including the Obamas and Clintons.

But according to the 2021 Dukes County rural health assessment, 20% of the island's total population is Brazilian, with Portuguese considered the second most spoken language. Martha's Vineyard is also economically diverse, according to Ronchetti, with its large immigrant population largely made up of people who initially came to work in the service industry.

When the two chartered planes arrived on the Vineyard this week, it was that year-round community which jumped into action.

The migrants, who were told before they boarded the planes that they were going to Boston, were met with food, housing, and clothing. Volunteers set up 50 beds at an Edgartown church.

Ronchetti said that while the Venezuelans sent to the island are being mistreated and used as pawns in a political game, the community rallied around them.

A desire to help, but nowhere to house

On Friday morning, the migrants were taken by bus and ferry to mainland Massachusetts to be housed at Joint Base Cape Cod — a military base that has previously housed refugees and victims of natural disasters.

Ronchetti said she's confident that locals would have ensured the migrants could make it onto the island, but the biggest challenge they'd face is housing.

Martha's Vineyard, an island of just over 87 square miles, is only accessible from mainland Cape Cod by plane or ferry, and it's in the throes of a housing crisis.

Many locals who don't own homes on Martha's Vineyard are forced to live out the winter in one rental and then scramble to find somewhere else to live — or even camp outside — in the summer months when wealthy tourists flock to the island.

"It's about doing anything you can to relieve the burden," Ronchetti said. "Normally a house is $2,000 or $3,000 a month in winter, but $2,000 or $3,000 a week in the summer. And you can add a few more zeros on there because there's a lot very costly summer housing, too."

Ronchetti, who owns several rental properties, told Insider that this year was especially challenging, and she let winter renters extend their stays into the summer because there was nowhere else for them to go.

Some house cleaners who come to the Vineyard on work visas over the summer had to return to Brazil because they couldn't secure housing, said Ronchetti, who described the shortage as "really, really terrible."

Christina Pushaw, a spokesperson for DeSantis, didn't include that context in her tweet addressing the situation.

"Martha's Vineyard residents should be thrilled about this. They vote for sanctuary cities — they get a sanctuary city of their own," she tweeted. "And illegal aliens will increase the town's diversity, which is strength. Right?"